Raising a Sensory Smart Child:

Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child With Sensory Processing Issues. A Book by Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske.

Raising a Sensory Smart Child

Author Lindsey Biel went from having her own advertising and marketing agency -- from, as she writes, "…wearing tailored suits and heels to boring meetings -- to wearing "fingerpaint and tuna-fish-smeared jeans and sneakers" as a professional working with children who have special needs. She was "thrilled," she recalls, "that playing and being silly could help a child do really hard things really well" (Biel, 2005, p. 5). Biel became such a committed professional therapist that she decided to team up with Nancy K. Peske (author, editor, rock guitarist) and write an important book for parents of children with sensory processing disorder (also called sensory integration dysfunction). The book is written in easy-to-digest segments with a wealth of information and recommendations.

What a child with sensory processing disorder acts out:

Biel writes that there are a "lot of children with nothing recognizably wrong with them…" who are suffering because the healthcare professionals perhaps haven't identified exactly what the problem really is. The book begins with what every reader should most certainly not skip over, the personal story of Nancy Peske, whose son Cole seemed perfectly "normal" at the outset but soon began to engage in strange behaviors. At the playground, for example, Cole would hear a siren and go into a "mini-trance" (p. 1). When an ambulance passed by he would stop his ascent to the top of the slide and "stare into space" while other kids impatiently waited on the steps behind him.

"I would often shout his name and wave my hand in front of his face," Peske writes, but she got "no response." She remembers thinking, "That's kind of weird" but she shrugged it off as just something that had distracted him. When Cole got into books he really loved reading, and he said "Mama" and "Dada" at six months of age. The problem was, he lost just about every vocabulary word shortly after learning it. The word "water" should have been spoken by the child several times a day, since he like to drink water. But he would say it once, and then not again for months, Peske remembers. Naturally concerned parents are going to ask Cole's pediatrician what might be wrong with their boy; and when Peske and her husband asked the doctor he just said wait and see what develops. Although friends were saying things like, "Don't worry, he'll talk when he's ready," at the age of two, Cole was only saying seven words. It was time to get him evaluated by a speech language pathologist.

Following a "barrage of questions about milestones and habits" and tests, the prognosis was that Cole had an "expressive speech delay" issue and "motor skill delays" as well. First denial, then depression set in for Cole's parents. The need for occupational therapy led Peske and her husband to Lindsey Biel, the advertising agency maven who had changed careers and had become a therapist. Things improved for Cole and though "he's wired a little differently from other kids…so what?" his mother explains (p. 6).

The resources that this book offers vis-a-vis sensory integration dysfunction -- or for those kids with just "mild sensory issues" -- will help parents learn how to:

a) Learn to spot "atypical behaviors" by going through a sensory checklist which provides a "new way" to view seemingly problem issues with children; b) tell the difference between "willful bad behavior" and "neurological over-stimulation" (or even under-stimulation), and also to help a child's body to "enhance how he behaves"; c) locate and cooperate with an occupational therapist and other professionals; d) increase your child's ability to "tolerate distressing sensations and situations at home" or at school or in the community; e) tune into to the sensory needs that are unique to your child and learn how to help the child develop workable ways to meet those needs; f) get the most out of the school that your child is attending; g) implement better strategies that will allow a more effective nurturing of the child, deal with "hard-to-handle behaviors" and give the child the skills to help him survive tough challenges; h) address "oral-motor issues such as delayed speech and eating problems"; i) deal effectively with learning issues, developmental delays and "disorganization"; j) fill your home with the right equipment and toys to meet your child's needs; and k) employ proven solutions and techniques to help your parenting skills and avoid "frustrating ordeals" (pp. 7-8).

There are a number of descriptions of the sensory integration disorder, the authors explain: "sensory processing disorder" (SPD); "sensory integrative dysfunction"; "sensory modulation disorder"; and also "dysfunction of (or dysfunctional) sensory integration" (DSI). For the purposes of the book the authors use "SI dysfunction" and SID. SID by the way is in no way related to sudden infant death syndrome (p. 8).

There are many variations to SI dysfunction, and the authors remind readers that if a child is born prematurely, the doctor may alert parents to possible "language delays" or other "developmental delays." The doctor may warn the parents of adopted or premature babies that sensory problems might become a problem. If any sensory problems to appear, there are numerous professional sources of help, and the book identifies them.

While healthy adults go about their daily tasks with seamlessly easy sensory integration -- ironing while chatting with a friend for example -- people with sensory dysfunction have a hard time figuring out "what is going on inside and outside their bodies," the authors explain. And there is no assurance that the sensory information their are receiving from their brains is at all accurate (p. 14). Meanwhile, what are some of the common signs that the body has an awareness problems with regard to sensory malfunctions? The authors list seven possibilities, asking, "Compared to other children his age, does your child…"

a) Seem to move "awkwardly" or with stiff movements"; b) appear a bit weaker physically than his or her peer group? c) have trouble attaching clothing snaps, working with Legos, popping beats, or does he write "way to light or too dark" and breaks toys more often than a kid should? d) bite other kids, hit or push or seem to be too pushy when in fact he's not an aggressive child? e) either avoid or crave pushing, pulling, bouncing, jumping and crashing -- or hanging from bars? f) "chew on clothing or objects" more often than other kids do? And g) watch his feet when he's running or walking, always looking down?

A child who has SI dysfunction might seem lazy or silly but in fact that individual may be doing things that seem out of control because he or she is not getting coordinated information from the brain to the arms and legs. The authors admit they don't like the world "normal" because all that means is that something "falls within the norm" (it is statistically average). But parents also hate to hear that their child is "abnormal" and so the authors say, get rid of labels and concentrate on what the child is doing that seems a bit strange.

For example, a kid with SI dysfunction may be oversensitive to sounds (like the boy who froze when the siren was heard), to movement, to smells, tastes and to touch. An SI child can be expected to be easily distracted, the authors say (p. 18) and have serious problems paying attention or staying on task. There may be signs that the child has an unusually "high or low activity level" and if there is a frequent "tuning out or withdrawing" that too could be a sign of SI dysfunction. When a situation challenges the child with SI dysfunction, he may exhibit "out-of-proportion reactions." Does the child show impulsiveness, or have problems transitioning from one activity to another activity, or seem rigid and inflexible at times? Moreover, are there signs of carelessness or clumsiness -- and is the child uncomfortable while involved with group situations? All of these behaviors in this paragraph are signs that SI dysfunction may be part of the problem, the authors assert.